Thursday, April 23, 2026 |
Photo – Map of Yampa River Basin – Bigfoot99 file photo
Downstream users on the Colorado River are ratcheting up the pressure on the Little Snake River to solve their own crisis. That was the message from Wyoming Senior Assistant Attorney General Chris Brown to irrigators and others at a meeting in Jackson last week.
Brown said the Little Snake River is already straining under the same pressures, rising demand and falling supply, as the Colorado River system. The outlook for the Colorado River is so concerning that it’s prompting the federal government to release huge amounts of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Wyoming-Utah border to prevent Lake Powell from dropping to the point that it could no longer produce power.
After hearing concerns about the potential for transferring water from one basin to cover dwindling supply now threatening Northern Arizona’s Glen Canyon Dam, Brown said he spoke with the state engineer. Wyoming’s constitution gives the state engineer general supervision over all waters in the state, Brown said.
Brown received a round of applause when he told the audience of water users that State Engineer Brandon Gephart “is not entertaining any proposals to transfer water out of this basin into the Colorado River Basin.”
More than 50 years ago in 1971, the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office evaluated the possibility of diverting Snake River water into the Green River Basin, which flows into the Colorado. Two methods originally considered included pumping and piping or a free-flow tunnel.
Brown noted that Wyoming has a 1949 compact with Idaho that would require Idaho’s approval to take water from the Snake River Basin.
Brown told the audience that in his legal opinion, Idaho likely would say either ‘no’ or ‘hell no’” to the proposition. Idaho’s potato crop depends on Wyoming water.
As in Wyoming, record heat and a low snowpack are putting the problem in stark relief this year. Idaho Governor Brad Little declared a drought emergency last week for the entire state.
